Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To withdraw one's support or help from, especially in spite of duty, allegiance, or responsibility; desert: abandon a friend in trouble.
- v. To give up by leaving or ceasing to operate or inhabit, especially as a result of danger or other impending threat: abandoned the ship.
- v. To surrender one's claim to, right to, or interest in; give up entirely. See Synonyms at relinquish.
- v. To cease trying to continue; desist from: abandoned the search for the missing hiker.
- v. To yield (oneself) completely, as to emotion.
- n. Unbounded enthusiasm; exuberance.
- n. A complete surrender of inhibitions.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To detach or withdraw one's self from; leave. To desert; forsake utterly: as, to
abandon one's home; to abandon duty. - To give up; cease to occupy one's self with; cease to use, follow, etc.: as, to abandon an enterprise; this custom was long ago abandoned.
- To resign, forego, or renounce; relinquish all concern in: as, to abandon the cares of empire.
- To relinquish the control of; yield up without restraint: as, he abandoned the city to the conqueror.
- To outlaw; banish; drive out or away.
- To reject or renounce.
- In com., to relinquish to the underwriters all claim to, as to ships or goods insured, as a preliminary toward recovering for a total loss. See abandonment.
- n. The act of giving up or relinquishing; abandonment.
- n. Abandonment to naturalness of action or manner; freedom from constraint or conventionality; dash.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To surrender to the insurer the insured item, so as to claim a total loss.
- adv. obsolete, not comparable Freely; entirely.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To cast or drive out; to banish; to expel; to reject.
- v. To give up absolutely; to forsake entirely ; to renounce utterly; to relinquish all connection with or concern on; to desert, as a person to whom one owes allegiance or fidelity; to quit; to surrender.
- v. Reflexively: To give (one's self) up without attempt at self-control; to yield (one's self) unrestrainedly; -- often in a bad sense.
- v. (Mar. Law) To relinquish all claim to; -- used when an insured person gives up to underwriters all claim to the property covered by a policy, which may remain after loss or damage by a peril insured against.
- n. obsolete Abandonment; relinquishment.
- n. A complete giving up to natural impulses; freedom from artificial constraint; careless freedom or ease.
WordNet 3.0
- v. forsake, leave behind
- v. leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
- v. stop maintaining or insisting on; of ideas or claims
- n. the trait of lacking restraint or control; reckless freedom from inhibition or worry
- n. a feeling of extreme emotional intensity
- v. give up with the intent of never claiming again
- v. leave behind empty; move out of
Etymologies
- Middle English abandounen, from Old French abandoner, from a bandon : a, at (from Latin ad; see ad-) + bandon, control; see bhā-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The one point they will never abandon is there will be no unlimited right of return.”
“I have many in my own extended family who would be said to have long abandoned the practice of their Faith, though sadly what they often abandon is not the Faith in its integrity, but the caricature that was passed on to them.”
“I would like to know what Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner have been smoking or drinking to make a statement like this "Today's employment report reminds us that spending, taxing, and borrowing with reckless abandon is exactly what Democrats in charge of Washington have done all year long," For eight years the Republican spending, taxing, and borrowing with reckless abandon took a surplus into massive deficit themselfs.”
“Today's employment report reminds us that spending, taxing, and borrowing with reckless abandon is no way to create more jobs, yet that is exactly what Democrats in charge of Washington have done all year long,”
“Today's employment report reminds us that spending, taxing, and borrowing with reckless abandon is no way to create more jobs, yet that is exactly what Democrats in charge of Washington have done all year long," House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a statement.”
“First, pursue a dirt cheap Soyuz type system; second, abandon manned spaceflight and rely on buying seats on launchers of other countries; or just plain abandon manned spaceflight.”
“A merged Microsoft/Yahoo with the commitment to do search right that MS has started to demonstrate and that Google has started to abandon is going to eat their lunch in the same way that MS did it to Lotus, Novell, WordPerfect, etc … better products, better marketing, and more focus on the long term.”
“This killer instinct that our neo had that caused her to fight to the death with abandon is what scared the hell out of us.”
“Yet the abandon is still there, if you know where to find it.”
““The abandon is still there,” she writes, “if you know where to find it.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘abandon’.
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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Options Lexis
Options terms you must know in order to be a successful options trader.
abandon, accrued interest, acquisition, adjusted option, affidavit of domi..., all-or-none order..., american deposito..., american stock ex..., american-style op..., arbitrage, ask or offer, assigned and 366 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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A to abominator (Chambers)
aa gets over 40 hits
aardvark 49 hits
abbatoir 103 hits
abjure 138 hitsA, A-line, A-list, A-lister, A 1, A-road, A-side, from A to B, from A to Z, A-bomb, A-effect, A level and 254 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
+
2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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Walking in the rain
It's possible someone else has already made a list like this. Maybe their list includes piña coladas - I hope so. I'll be starting mine with a broken umbrella and slippery flip-flops, but feel free...
broken umbrella, slippery flip-flops, rain, worms, cold, wet, mud-luscious, puddle-wonderful, lightning, flooding, mud, storm-water runoff and 18 more...
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him and i
peach, left, alone, abandon, horid, gay, bloody, beautiful, outside, inside, confused, unconditional and 111 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL A
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 172 more...
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dark and bright words of shine and fi...
scotophil, scotoma, scotia, shed, shadow, shade, scone, whiting, edelweiss, light, lightning, lucina and 349 more...
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GRE
Taisha GRE Bible
archaic, archetype, archipelago, architect, archive, arctic, ardor, arduous, argot, arid, armory, arrest and 289 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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ESL Academic Word List
This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
collapse, depression, colleagues, invoked, levy, nonetheless, likewise, so-called, ongoing, conceived, forthcoming, integrity and 558 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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my list
executive, oxide, slang, paddy, calamity, pledge, carved, deliberate, vastly, tolerate, simultaneous, ornamental and 114 more...
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Rilakkuma's list
The Velvetine Ruffians
gamine, waif, ruffian, villain, rake, libertine, velvetine, luminary, nom de plume, street urchin, epicurean, eventide and 256 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for abandon.

dailyword Artie fears that Jim will do this to him someday. Oct 29, 2012
Telofy "a complete surrender to natural impulses without restraint or moderation; freedom from inhibition or conventionality: to dance with reckless abandon." – Random House
Wow. This word, this definition—I totally got goosebumps reading it. Jun 21, 2009
optionslexis The act of not exercising or selling an option before its expiration. Apr 19, 2009
Prolagus What does this tinyurl link to? http://preview.tinyurl.com/5ppthe states "lextutor.ca" but I do not understand what lextutor is. Dec 30, 2008
sionnach
OK, bn12709, enough with the idiotic concordance linking already. If you are a person with some kind of relevant non-commercial message, then welcome to Wordie. If not, then go scatter your lexicological litter somewhere else. Nov 23, 2008
bnl2709 Concordance
Nov 12, 2008
sionnach "Bubbles and I just got engaged", said Michael with abandon. Oct 31, 2008